jtermiteo 的最愛

Here we have one of my favorite termites from the Macrotermitinae subfamily: Pseudacanthotermes spiniger! While slightly smaller than its congener P. militaris i personally find these more interesting, especially for the very peculiar morphology of the minor soldier: very fast, long-legged, darkly colored and with huge antennae it almost look and move more like an ant than a termite. They strongly contrast with the more "traditional-looking" major soldiers, who in this species sport especially distended abdomens in order to accomodate copious quantities of defensive secretion (note that having being disturbed during collecting, several of those in the pics already largely exuded said secretion).

Note that the date is rounded up and might be off by a few days at most.

An abundance of termites! Something in the air caused clouds of alates to emerge. This created a feast for others.

Some alates burrowing. Many tried to burrow in the same spot, even in Harvester Ant nests (see gif). This did not seem to bother the Messors unduly, but they were chased away by an ant which I think is an Anoplolepis.